1977–78 FC Basel season

FC Basel

1977–78 season
Chairman	René Theler
Manager	Helmut Benthaus
Ground	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
Nationalliga A	3rd
Swiss Cup	Semi-finals
Swiss League Cup	Semi-finals
European Cup	Round 1
Coppa delle Alpi	Group stage
Top goalscorer	League: Roland Schönenberger (16) All: Roland Schönenberger (24)
Highest home attendance	21,500 on 22 April 1978 vs Grasshopper Club
Lowest home attendance	3,500 on 5 November 1977 vs Etoile Carouge
Average home league attendance	9,062
← 1976–77 1978–79 →

The Fussball Club Basel 1893 1977–78 season was their 84th season since the club was founded. It was their 32nd consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football after they won promotion during the season 1945–46. They played their home games in the St. Jakob Stadium. René Theler was voted as club chairman at the AGM. This was Theler's second period as chairman.

Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the thirteenth consecutive season. During the off-season there were only two changes in the squad. Goalkeeper Hans Küng joined from Xamax and Hansruedi Schär joined from lower tier FC Oensingen. All other mutations were internal between the first team and the reserves. Basel played a total of 54 games in their 1977–78 season. 32 in the domestic league, four in the Swiss Cup, four in the Swiss League Cup, two in the European Cup, four in the Cup of the Alps and eight were friendly matches. The team scored a total of 125 goals and conceded 88. Roland Schönenberger was the team's overall top goal scorer with 26 goals, Detlev Lauscher and Erni Maissen each netted 15 times.^[1]

Basel played in the 1977–78 Nationalliga A. This was contested by the first 10 teams from the previous season and the two newly promoted teams Etoile Carouge and Young Fellows Zürich. The champions would qualify for the 1978–79 European Cup and the Swiss Cup winners would qualify for 1978–79 Cup Winners' Cup. The UEFA modified the entry rules for Switzerland again and, therefore, this season only two teams would qualify for the 1977–78 UEFA Cup. Due to the fact that Basel were reigning champions and because there were only minor mutations in the squad, the club's primary aim was to defend their championship title. The Nationalliga A was played in two stages. The qualification phase was played by all 12 teams in a double round robin, and after completion of this stage, the teams were divided into two groups. The first six teams contended in the championship group (with half the obtained points in the first stage as bonus) and the positions seventh to twelfth contended the relegation group (also with half the obtained points as bonus). Basel ended the qualification round in fourth position and ended the championship group in third position with 27 points, two points behind Grasshopper Club and one behind Servette. They failed their championship aim, being beaten 2–4 by the Grasshoppers in the very last game of the season.^[2]

Basel scored a total of 74 goals conceding 48 in their 32 domestic league games. Roland Schönenberger was the team's top goal scorer with 16 league goals. Detlev Lauscher, Erni Maissen and Jörg Stohler each scored 9 goals.^[3]

In the first round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn against FC Lerchenfeld Thun and this was the first time that these two clubs had ever played against each other. Basel won this away game 4–2. In the next round they beat Zürich away 3–1 and St. Gallen at home 4–1 in the quarter-final. Therefore Basel advanced to the semi-finals before being knocked out of the competition by Grasshopper Club. Servette won the competition this season. In the first round of the Swiss League Cup Basel were drawn against Wettingen. Also in this competition Basel advanced to the semi-finals before being knocked out. St. Gallen won the competition beating Grasshopper Club 3–2 in the final.^[4]

As reigning Swiss champions Basel were qualified for the 1977–78 European Cup and in the first round they were drawn against Austrian champions FC Wacker Innsbruck. After a home defeat^[5] and an away win, this competition was concluded after the first round, Wacker won 3–2 on aggregate.^[6] In the Coppa delle Alpi Basel played in group B together with Bastia, Olympique Lyonnais and Lausanne-Sport. But with only one win and three defeats they ended the group stage in last position in the table.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  SUI Hans Küng (from Xamax) 2 DF  SUI Walter Geisser 3 DF  SUI Walter Mundschin 4 DF  SUI Peter Ramseier 5 DF  SUI Paul Fischli 6 MF  SUI Otto Demarmels 7 FW  SUI Peter Marti 8 MF  SUI Markus Tanner 9 FW  SUI Serge Muhmenthaler 10 FW  DEN Eigil Nielsen 11 FW  GER Detlev Lauscher

No. Pos. Nation Player 12 MF  SUI Jean-Pierre Maradan 13 FW  SUI Roland Schönenberger 14 DF  SUI Jörg Stohler 15 MF  SUI Rolf Bucher 16 MF  SUI Hansruedi Schär (from FC Oensingen) 17 MF  SUI Arthur von Wartburg 18 MF  SUI Erni Maissen 22 GK  SUI Hans Müller — GK  SUI Jürg Wenger — MF  SUI Silvan Corbat — DF  SUI Alex Wirth (reserves)

Players who left the squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  SUI Thomas Manger (reserves)

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  SUI Felix Wälchli (reserves) — DF  SUI Markus Just (reserves)

Legend

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Grasshopper Club	22	15	4	3	60	27	+33	34	To championship round
2	Servette	22	14	5	3	44	20	+24	33
3	Lausanne-Sport	22	13	4	5	47	21	+26	30
4	Basel[7]	22	12	4	6	53	34	+19	28
5	FC Zürich[8]	22	11	6	5	38	27	+11	28
6	Sion	22	6	9	7	29	33	−4	21
7	Xamax	22	8	3	11	32	42	−10	19	To relegation play-out round
8	Young Boys	22	7	5	10	27	45	−18	19
9	Chênois	22	8	2	12	27	35	−8	18
10	St. Gallen	22	5	7	10	27	38	−11	17
11	Étoile Carouge	22	5	3	14	22	40	−18	13
12	Young Fellows Zürich	22	1	2	19	14	58	−44	4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	BP	Pts	Qualification
1	Grasshopper Club	10	4	4	2	17	12	+5	17	29	Swiss Champions, qualified for 1978–79 European Cup and entered 1978 Intertoto Cup
2	Servette	10	3	5	2	10	10	0	17	28	Swiss Cup winners, qualified for 1978–79 Cup Winners' Cup
3	Basel	10	5	3	2	21	14	+7	14	27	qualified for 1978–79 UEFA Cup
4	Lausanne-Sport	10	4	3	3	21	14	+7	15	26	qualified for 1978–79 UEFA Cup
5	Zürich	10	5	2	3	15	15	0	14	26	entered 1978 Intertoto Cup
6	Sion	10	0	1	9	8	27	−19	11	12	entered 1978 Intertoto Cup

St. Gallen won 5–4 on penalties.

First round

Wacker won 3–2 on aggregate.

NB: teams did not play compatriots

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	BP	Pts
1	Bastia	4	3	1	0	8	3	+5	1	8[a]	Advanced to final
2	Lausanne-Sport	4	2	1	1	5	4	+1	0	5
3	Olympique Lyonnais	4	1	0	3	8	9	−1	0	2
4	Basel	4	1	0	3	7	12	−5	0	2

• History of FC Basel
• List of FC Basel players
• List of FC Basel seasons

• Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2015/2016. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. ISBN 978-3-7245-2050-4
• Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel. ISBN 978-3-7245-2305-5
• Switzerland 1977–78 at RSSSF
• Swiss League Cup at RSSSF
• Cup of the Alps 1977 at RSSSF

• FC Basel official site